Article Posted on : - May 24, 2014

The C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

WASHINGTON (PTI): The construction of bed-down infrastructure facilities for the C-17 aircraft ordered by the Indian Air Force at its Hindon Air Force Station in Ghaziabad is on schedule, a top US military official has said.

The bed-down infrastructure facilities for the 10 C-17 heavy lift transport aircraft is being built at Hindon Air Force base by the US Army Corp of Engineers at an estimated cost of USD 21 million.

"The construction of the facilities began in 2012, and we expect to have them completed by the year 2016," said Lt Gen Thomas P Bostick, Commanding General and Chief of Engineers for the US Army Corps of Engineers, which is managing the construction facilities.

"At Ghaziabad in India, the Corps is managing the construction of a C-17 facility for the [Indian] Air Force Station Hindon. We're also assisting India with the procurement of infrastructure for the C-17 transport aircraft as part of our foreign military sales programme," he told a group of foreign reporters from the Asia Pacific region.

"We are working vigorously to keep up the schedule so that these bed-down facilities where the C-17s would go will be completed in time. We believe we'll finish the facility construction in 2016," he said, adding that the construction has no issues currently.

Bostick said his Pacific Ocean division commander Gen Rick Stevens was just in India to see the construction site and the ongoing construction and to interact with some of the leaders in India.

"I think on the ground we've got the right people. We have a great relationship with the team on the ground from India and the contractor, and the work is on schedule, so the aircraft may come in sooner than the construction is completed, but in terms of the construction, we're moving as quickly as we can to expedite where we can," he said.

Bostick further said that the US Army Corps of Engineers was ready to assist India in any other field it wanted.